It was just a matter of time before advertisements worked their way into video games. Given that a lot gamers fall into the highly coveted male 18-34 advertising demographic it was just a matter of time before publishers started trying to find new ways to put ads in the faces of gamers. With this in mind we talked to Nicholas Longano at Massive Incorporated, one of the leading pioneers in this field about their upcoming video game advertising network.

GamingNexus: Who are the principle people behind Massive?
Nicholas Longano: The Massive executive team combines expertise in the video game industry, advertising and software development. Here are brief biographies of each executive:

Mitch Davis, CEO, has worked in technology and software development for 10 years, with experience in middleware software, online media, and general management. He is former Senior Vice President of Encyclopedia Britannica. There he headed Britannica.com and the CD Rom business units.

Katherine Hays, the Chief Operating Officer, has an extensive background in general management and finance specific to the media industry. She hails from Goldman Sachs where she worked as an Equity Research Analyst watching companies such as AOL Time Warner, Disney, and Vivendi Universal.

Nicholas Longano, the Chief Marketing Officer, has over 15 years in consumer packaged good marketing, with 4 years as General Manager and Head of Marketing for Vivendi Universal Games. He was recently President of MOJO Advertising in Los Angeles, forming a new video game division. There he worked with industry clients including Atari, ESPN Games, VUG and Groove Games.

Richard Skeen, the VP of Advertising Sales, has nearly 20 years experience in advertising and media sales, with a focus on both traditional print and on-line media, as well as media planning. He has worked at GQ, Outside Magazine, the New Yorker, and most recently YM and YM.com.

David Sturman, the VP of Technology, has over 25 years of experience in the technology industry. He is the past CTO at Acclaim Entertainment where he led the on-line games project. While at Acclaim he established means to coordinate software development across five independent game studios. David holds a PhD from the MIT Media Lab in computer graphics and animation. He is also a specialist in videogame technology and design, which he has taught as an adjunct professor at Columbia University.

Claudia Batten, VP of Client Relations who posseses six years of experience in the technology sector, including four years as a corporate attorney specializing in contracts and technology law. Claudia has worked with large corporations in the telecommunications sector (specifically in mobile), banking and biotechnology; and she has specialist experience with intellectual property protection, e-commerce and privacy.

GamingNexus: Can you give us a little history behind the company? Was it always about in-game advertising or did you start out as a normal firm and evolve into the gaming segment?
Nicholas Longano: Massive launched in October 2004 after two years of development on the network. Appreciating the huge opportunity dynamic in-game advertising provided for advertisers, gamers, and game publishers, Massive was founded to specifically address this opportunity. Prior to launching, Massive patented the system and software used to dynamically deliver the ads, put together a national team and partnered with video game industry leaders.
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